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Component types / brands to use for Clementine amps

PostPosted: Sat Mar 20, 2021 10:55 am
by jukingeo
Hello All,

I know that this is question that has probably come up dozens of times for those building a new tube amplifier, but the last message I found here that discussed it dated back to 2010! So I am just going to reiterate since much time has passed since then.

So as my subject title says, I am curious to know what types of resistors should I purchase for either a Clementine Darling or Chubby project. I know there are many types such as carbon composition, carbon film, metal film, metal oxide, and wirewounds. What is best?

I know that I have heard stories about carbon composition resistors and I know from practical experience that these are NOT good in higher current situations, such as plate resistors. When dealing with guitar amplifiers, I almost always used Metal film or oxide resistors here. I have not noticed any ill effects on the sound, but again, this was for a guitar amplifier.

For wirewounds, I have seen these for cathode resistors, but some say that they can color the sound because of the added inductance.

So I would like to know what types of resistors are best and where. Also if there is preferred brand, I would like to know that as well, although it seems like brand is more relevant when it comes to the next area I want to talk about and that is capacitors:

Ok, so dealing with caps next. Again, what brands are good to go with for the PC mount capacitors? I know for the stage coupling capacitors, it seems brands such as Sprauge and Solen are favorites, but I do have some oil caps too. All the ones I have here are rated for 600 volts. But which is best?

For the cathode bypass caps, it seems regular electrolytic caps are recommended here, but in my past readings, some recommend using a film cap instead, such as a Solen. However, I can see this is not an option for the Clementine board as the caps get ridiculously huge. So I am wondering how much of a sound difference would I be experiencing here? Again brand names come to mind.

I am going to assume that the power supply is less critical, but there seems to be a change in the diode type when going with the "Chubby" design and the UN4007 is recommended over the 1N4007. I have the latter, but not the former. Are they much better?

Again assuming, the power supply caps shouldn't matter too much in the design since it is not in the audio path, so I figure any good brand electrolytic caps should be fine, correct?

That being said, I am curious to hear responses from those that have experimented with different values, and / or brands, of resistors and caps. It would help me select what I would need for my amplifier.

Thank you,
Geo